Retail

In a move designed to accelerate adoption of RFID at the item level, Avery Dennison has signed a licensing agreement with Round Rock Research.

The Coca-Cola Company received the 2013 NASCAR Marketing Achievement Award at the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon held in the Encore Ballroom at Wynn Las Vegas. An official partner since 1998, Coca-Cola has become the first three-time recipient of the award.

Naperville, Ill. -- OfficeMax on Tuesday reported a lower-than-expected profit, for its first profit, hurt by declining technology sales. Prior to its earnings release, the company also announced a special dividend of $1.50 per share.

OfficeMax's first-quarter profit available to shareholders rose to $56.3 million, from $4.9 million a year earlier. Sales fell 5.65% to $1.77 billion, while analysts expected $1.83 billion.

Go offline, young man: That appears to be the mantra of e-commerce merchants these days.

As competition in the world of online retailing heats up — with Amazon's ever-burgeoning dominance posing the biggest threat — more pure-players are taking the brick-and-mortar plunge. It's a reminder, many experts say, of the strong appeal of the in-store experience — even when stacked up against the convenience of online shopping.

Arlington, Va. -- The U.S. Senate on late Monday approved the long-debated Internet sales tax proposal, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, by a bipartisan vote of 69 to 27. The Obama administration has already endorsed the bill, but before it can become law it must be approved by the House, where Republicans are split on the bill.

John Bucksbaum discusses post-recession realities

Bucksbaum Retail Properties opened for business in April 2012. The Chicago-based company has already opened one project and is working on four more.

The 53,000-sq.-ft. Kingsbury Center near North Chicago has opened with four tenants: Buy Buy Baby, PetSmart, Road Runner Sports and Jimmy Johns. It is a joint venture with Chicago-based Structured Development.

San Diego -- PriceSmart announced that for the month of April 2013 net sales increased 10.7% to $176.1 million, from $159.1 million in April a year earlier. For the eight months ended April 30, 2013, net sales increased 11.0% to $1,483.8 million.

For the four-week period ended April 28, same-store sales for the 29 warehouse clubs open at least 13 1/2 full months increased 9.6%, compared to the four-week period last year.

Canton, Mass. -- Destination XL Group on May 5 launched a national advertising campaign designed to draw attention to the many challenges men who wear extra large sizes face when shopping for clothes and position Destination XO stores as the one-stop-shopping solution for the style needs of this underserved consumer.